Detachment and Unification: A Chinese Graphic Design History in Greater China Since 1979 Wendy Siuyi Wong The illustrations are identified by the name of Introduction designer, the client or title of the work, the The history of modern Chinese design is virtually unknown due to design category, and the year. The title of the its relatively late development compared to design in the West. Not work is the author’s own title, if an official until recent decades, since the opening up of China in 1979, has a name is cannot found. All woks reprinted with unifying Chinese graphic design history started to form. This was permission of the designer. assisted by China’s rapid economic development and interactions with Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Macau; which, together with main- land China, make up the Greater China region. Traditionally, in academic practice, it was common to separate the investigation of these individual Chinese societies. Matthew Turner, one of the few Western historians to examine Chinese design, notes that the history of Hong Kong design prior to the 1960s “simply was believed not to 1 2 1 Matthew Turner, “Early Modern Design in exist.” Chinese-trained design scholar Shou Zhi Wong emphasizes Hong Kong” in Dennis P. Doordan, ed., that there has been very little written about modern design in main- Design History: An Anthology land China, because design activity under the communists before (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1995), 212. This the start of the Open Door Policy in 1979 was mostly in the service article was first published in Design of party propaganda.3 Both Turner and Wang, as well as Scott Issues, 6:1 (Fall 1989): 79–91; also Matthew Turner, “Development and Minick and Jiao Ping, published their works on Chinese design Transformations in the Discourse of history before a number of key economic and political changes in Design in Hong Kong” in Rajeshwari China and Hong Kong took place. Ghose, ed., Design and Development in With the return of Hong Kong and Macau to Chinese sover- South and Southeast Asia (Hong Kong: eignty in July 1997 and December 1999, respectively, it now is possi- Centre of Asian Studies, University of ble, and even preferable to consider a unified history of Greater Hong Kong, 1990), 123–36. 2 The translation of the Chinese names China rather than simply the individual histories of these regions. used in this paper is based on the In addition, during the past decade, important political solidifica- Chinese system in which the family name tion has taken place, and the various locales within Greater China is first and the given name last. English have been engaged in increasing levels of cultural and economic names are used if they have been estab- exchange. Thus, it makes little sense at this time to consider each lished by individual designers. The system of translation of Chinese names locale as a separate entity. Although Greater China cannot be con- to English used in this article is based on sidered a single entity for the purpose of writing a political history, the Romanization of Cantonese for Hong a great deal of cultural similarity and creative cross-fertilization that Kong and Macau designers, or the has taken place throughout many decades in spite of political shifts Romanization of Mandarin for mainland of great magnitude. Arguably, then, the history of Chinese graphic China and Taiwanese designers, and the design can be understood more meaningfully as encompassing the Romanized names already established by individuals. whole region rather than as a set of discrete local histories. 3 Shou Zhi Wang, “Chinese Modern This article takes the potentially controversial position that Design: A Retrospective” in Dennis P. Chinese design history should be studied as one unified whole Doordan, ed., Design History: An rather than individual studies of several separate entities. It argues Anthology (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1995). © Copyright 2001 Massachusetts Institute of Technology Design Issues: Volume 17, Number 4 Autumn 2001 51 that the development of graphic design in the Greater China region since 1979 involves shared common ground among the locales within the region such that their histories cannot easily be sepa- rated. This article will focus specifically on graphic design, examin- ing artistic and commercial visual communication activities other than Communist Party propaganda. Its objective is to uncover the history of Chinese graphic design, and to begin to build the founda- tions of this history from a unified regional perspective. Origins and Development Before 1979 Many of the influences that shaped modern design throughout Greater China had their origins in centuries-old Chinese arts and crafts traditions. These traditional elements later were combined with foreign influences to form dynamic modern design styles. The most prominent example of Chinese modern design may be found in the Shanghai style of the 1920s and 1930s. Design works pro- duced in Shanghai during this period reflect various outside influ- ences in large part due to the existence of numerous foreign concession zones in the city. As Minick and Jiao note, “[c]oming to a culture with such a strong decorative heritage, the geometric and patterned compositions of art deco only succeeded in fueling further the renewed interests in China’s own past.”4 They refer to the “masterful synthesis”5 characterizing Chinese design works at this time. The Shanghai period represented both the beginning of 3 continued Chinese modern design and the best of this emerging form before 213-41. This article was first published in the Second World War. Creative design work of the quality pro- Design Issues, 6:1 (Fall 1989): 49–78; duced in Shanghai could not be sustained during the war, and after also Shou Zhi Wang, “The the Communists gained power in 1949 commercial graphic design Internationalization of Design Education: A Chinese Experience” in Rajeshwari was seen as a symbol of “Western lifestyle” and said to be a “waste Ghose, ed.,Design and Development in of national resources” because it encouraged the consumption of South and Southeast Asia, (Hong Kong: unnecessary products.6 However, the Shanghai spirit of commercial Centre of Asian Studies, University of graphic design continued under the capitalist economic system and Hong Kong, 1990), 267–76. British colonial rule in Hong Kong after the war. 4 Scott Minick and Jiao Ping, Chinese Graphic Design in the Twentieth Century The level of talent and quality of creative production in (London: Thames and Hudson, 1990), 38. Hong Kong before 1950 was never equal to that of Shanghai, nor 5 Minick and Jiao, Chinese Graphic Design was the direction of development begun in Shanghai continued in the Twentieth Century, 38. after this time. From the period after the war through the 1960s, 6 Wang, “Chinese Modern Design: A commercial graphic design developed at a steady pace in Hong Retrospective,” 230. Kong. Turner argues that Hong Kong was able to maintain its 7 Matthew Turner, Ersatz Design: Interactions Between Chinese and modern Chinese design style until at least the 1960s, through the Western Design in Hong Kong, 1950s- contributions of both mainland and Hong Kong designers.7 He 1960s (Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation. attributes a rapid fading of Hong Kong modern design style after Royal College of Art, London, 1993). His 1960 to the influx of American companies and to government assis- dissertation provides a detailed account tance for American design specialists, rather than local designers. of the interactions of modern Hong Kong design with Chinese, British, and United Local Chinese designers previously trained in Guangzhou and States traditions in the 1950s through Shanghai had to gradually alter their style to fit into the new 1960s. commercial environment dominated by American companies, and 52 Design Issues: Volume 17, Number 4 Autumn 2001 to meet the standard set by American-trained designers.8 This tran- sition was significant to the history of Hong Kong design, because it brought Western design theory and principles directly into contact with Chinese culture. Among the newly arrived American designers during the early 1960s, Henry Steiner has been the most influential.9 A gradu- ate of Yale who arrived in Hong Kong in 1961, Steiner demonstrated 8 Turner, “Early Modern Design in Hong Kong,” 209. new possibilities in incorporating Chinese cultural symbols and 9 Henry Steiner graduated from the Art and written characters into his otherwise Western-style designs. A Architecture School at Yale University student of Paul Rand, he practiced what he had learned about two with an MFA in Graphic Design in 1957. important design principles, “the primacy of concept” and the use Before starting his career in Hong Kong, of contrast to “give life” to a design.10 In Hong Kong, he established he worked in Paris and New York in vari- 11 ous graphic design positions. He arrived the principle of cross-cultural design, successfully adapting the in Hong Kong in 1961, and established generally understood concepts of Western design into the Hong his own company, Graphic Kong/Chinese context. For example, in his poster for the Hong Communication Limited, in 1964. He is Kong International Music Festival in 1969 (figure 1), Steiner places the first designer based in Hong Kong to the graphic presentation of the body of a butterfly between two receive international attention and recog- ears, which function visually as the wings. The addition of pearl nition. See Wang Xu, ed., Henry Steiner: A Graphic Designer’s Design Life (Beijing: earrings adds the final symbolic reference, representing Hong Kong Chinese Youth Publishing, 1999). [In as the “Pearl of the Orient” to most local viewers. Steiner introduced Chinese] the basic design principle of “concept” to Hong Kong design. His 10 Henry Steiner and Ken Haas, Cross- work brought local design closer to the international design style of Cultural Design: Communicating in the the times, something that had not yet been accomplished by locally Global Marketplace, (London: Thames and Hudson, 1995), 2.